St George’s School sit on a hill in Middletown, Rhode Island, on 6 January 2016.
Photograph: Steven Senne/AP

An elite boarding school in Rhode Island announced on Wednesday that it had agreed to a settlement to provide compensation for up to 30 former students over sexual abuse accusations.

St George’s School, in Middletown, had been under fire for months over allegations that boys and girls were molested and raped over the course of decades, from the early 70s into the early 2000s, with leadership accused of covering up the abuse.

Wednesday’s settlement comes about as a result of a pact between the school and a group representing the victims.

“We have identified credible complaints against 12 individuals that worked at St George’s over a 35-year period, and that’s a big number. That does not include peer-on-peer sexual abuse, either,” Eric MacLeish, a lawyer representing the victims, told the Guardian.

The small school of fewer than 400 students in grades nine through 12 charges $56,000 a year and was founded in 1896. It has an illustrious history of several famous attendees, such as members of the Astor and Vanderbilt dynasties, Prescott Bush, the father of president George HW Bush, poet Ogden Nash and, more recently, former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean.

LA school district settles classroom sexual abuse cases for $139m

Read more

But last year, former student Anne Scott came forward to say she had been systematically raped and threatened while at the school, beginning in 1979 at the age of 15, by the school’s athletic trainer, the late Al Gibbs, who was 65 at the time.

When she later tried to sue in her 20s, the school targeted her so aggressively that she gave up, the Boston Globe reported, in a series of investigations into St George’s and abuse at other elite private schools across New England.

On Wednesday Scott, who has been at the forefront of negotiations on behalf of victims in recent months, issued a statement thanking St George’s, saying: “It’s hard to put into words what it feels like to receive this kind of validation and support, after all these years.”

The amount of the financial settlement has not been disclosed and awards to individual claimants will be decided by Paul Finn, a well-known Boston mediator and arbitrator who has helped settle claims in the infamous Catholic priest sex abuse scandal in Boston, as well as in other cases involving schools.

MacLeish has also represented hundreds of victims in the Boston archdiocese scandal.

“Many people don’t understand how life-altering child sex abuse can be. This is something that changes your life forever, many survivors have an inability to trust, go through multiple divorces, substance abuse, its effect is profound,” MacLeish said.

The current principal of St George’s, Eric Peterson, who has been in place since 2004, has faced calls for his resignation, is accused of shielding abusers and covering up previous cases of abuse even before he joined the school.

Peterson said in June he will step down when his contract ends next year.

After much wrangling, the school commissioned independent counsel to conduct an investigation into past sexual abuse problems and that report is expected in mid-August.

Leslie Heaney, chair of the St George’s board of trustees, issued a statement on Wednesday, saying: “It is our sincere hope that this agreed resolution will assist our survivors as they move forward towards healing.”

MacLeish said his clients had suffered in silence for decades.

“Then the truth comes out,” he said.

Rhode Island state police led a seven-month criminal investigation last year that did not result in any charges.

Some accused staff are dead and other cases are too old to prosecute, MacLeish said. But “there is still potential” for future prosecutions, he said.

Wednesday’s settlement does not gag any of the complainants, but will preclude them from now suing the school.

MacLeish said that parents who sent their children to a highly regarded boarding school expected them to be safe.

But for staff and senior students wanting to prey on vulnerable girls and boys, “what better place to do this than a boarding school?” MacLeish said.

MacLeish said the negotiations leading up to the settlement were “an unusual process” but that, after years of painful arguments, it had been remarkable in its lack of “chest thumping and fighting”.

He was confident the school now reflects a culture that can properly deal with its history of abuse and believes St George’s is also safe for current and future students.